Just google YLOD and you'll see.  Its not just forums, its in the news...

and you nee some serious proof to say that the ps3 has a failure rate much higher than most people think. Your evidence also doesn't work, many people have many difference stories, and that doesn't mean they are true on a world wide scale. None of my friends have ever had a Wii or a PS3 die, does that mean they have a 0% failure rate? no. Almost all my friends have had their 360's die, does that mean it has a 99% failure rate? no.

edit: for yo_john117

I tried googling it, and found no major news articles about it, only forums posts, or gaming related websites with video's of people's ylod's. An interesting thing I did find, was that ylod yields 69,100 hits on google, while rrod gets 826,000. If you complain that that is unfair because rrod was only an early 360 problem, then see these results for hits from the past year only, which were 15,100 for ylod, and 143,000 for rrod.

Sample size: 80 vs however many friends you have. Its a substantial difference.

Its easy to say a Wii has a fractional failure rate because the hardware is cheap and mature and simple.

A 2% failure rate per year mean that the 4 key components (HDD, Blu Ray, Motherboard, PSU) each have a 0.5% chance of failure per year. The failure rate expected of an optical disk drive and HDD are both higher than 1% each.

http://www.gartner.com/press_releases/asset_154164_11.html

Table 1
Average Annualized Failure Rates for Desktop and Notebook PCs (Percent)

* Projected

Now the PS3 uses more power in operation than your typical desktop, gathers dust like your typical desktop and has similar componentry to your typical PC but has a form factor and thermal profile more similar to a laptop. Therefore without specific evidence to the contrary its pretty easy to conclude that the PS3 will have a failure rate similar to a PC.

So you are saying that I can't use anecdotal evidence (or squilliam) or think that the PS3 has a higher failure rate based on that, but other people can think it has a lower failure rate based on their anecdotal evidence?

How do you determine what most people think the failure rate is?

I am by no means saying it is anywhere near as bad as RROD was, but it is definitely a lot worse than 3% and is quite prevalent.  It actually ends up having worse results because they often get YLOD after their year warranty is up and that's $150 repair fee.

No one can really accurately tell what the PS3 early failure rate was, but it was assuredly above 3%.  It may have been less than 20%.  I was doing a worst case scenario for all 3.  10-15% is most likely.  What you really need to focus on is the current hardware revision stats.  I have still to hear of any Jasper 360's failing, so it is safe to say that 360's newly bought are now in the normal 1-3% failure rate along with the Wii and PS3.

sample size 80 verse 22.86 million. Thank you for re-iterating my point. No matter how many friends you have, or stories you've heard, you can't use it as conclusive evidence.

How about wii 2%, ps3 4%, 360 15%. Will that make you happy?

@ nightsurge: for that part you bolded, that's a good question, ask Squilliam cause I don't know.

360's till have way too many problems just by the threads on other sites, especially CAG which has It's own very long 360 RROD/E74 thread. However, I must admit the failure rates have come quite down over the last two years and considering there are more 360s out there thats a good thing.

I've read on these forums and elsewhere about the PS3 yellow light so maybe PS3s are going up a bit? But still nothing near 360 level.

Wii I have not heard of many issues outside of launch Wiis where mine had the graphics card over heat (dead like pixels on the screen, really odd issue but mine still runs so I never sent it in!).

My guesses?

360 - Pre late Falcon/Jasper 33% Now? 15% or less.
PS3 - 2-3% maybe
Wii - 1%

@Feylic, I guess you admit that the PS3 failure rates are higher than what most people think!

I am talking about current hardware revisions, not an average of all the systems out there.

As they stand for new machines:
Wii 1-2%
PS3 2-4%
360 3-5% or less

If we were going by launch machines the PS3 would be much higher than 4% and the 360 would also be higher than 15%, though how much higher is not really easily attainable.

Do you have figures to back them up? As far as i know disc scratching is still an issue.

PS3 around 4% i agree but Xbox should IMO be at least be about 5~10%

WII what will the figure be with collatoral damage?;)

No, they fixed the disk scratching issue with a different drive. Also, the disc scratching should not count as a broken console because the console still works after the game is scratched. Also, it is a very preventable symptom.